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PDN welcomes new publisher to staff

This week the Poteau Daily News family welcomed its newest member to our office. Robert Shearon has been named to the publisher's position at PDN and began undertaking his duties this week. "I'm very excited about the opportunity to be the publisher of the Poteau Daily News," Shearon said. "Poteau seems to be a really progressive community with a lot of great things going on."Shearon comes to PDN by way of the Hot Springs Village Voice where he served as the General Manager. Being in the newspaper industry since his graduation from Memphis State University in 1977 with a degree in journalism, Shearon has worked extensively in community newspapers and has held positions at a number of different publications including The Arkansas Democrate Gazzette and the Benton Courier. He said that through the years he has done almost every job in the business in one capacity or another. "I've worked in a number of different markets from county seat weeklies to large metropolitian dailies and I much prefer a rural community," he said. "I can already tell that I'm going to be right at home here."Shearon said that he believes in the importance of a local newspaper to a given community. He said he prefers to have as much local news in the newspaper as possible. "I try to cover all aspects of the community, particularly the schools and those organizations involved in economic development and growth, such as the chamber of commerce," Shearon said. Shearon has a 26-year-old son, Sam, who lives in Arkansas, and an 18 year old daughter, Kate, who is a Freshman at the University of Memphis. He is also an author. His book, "Righteous Nation", is an action/adventure novel set in the Arkansas Delta. It is available on Amazon.com.